h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Today in my quest to get some exercise, without actually doing anything labelled as exercise, a trip round Fulham Palace and No I didn't wander along to Craven Cottage which is next door.

Fulham Palace was one of the residences of the Bishops of London, it is now looked after by the council and volunteer groups. The Bish moved out when the extent of repairs became too much.

The old part is Tudor (Late 14xx) formed of 4 ranges including the great hall around a central courtyard, originally the Tudor part was moated but this was filled in in the 1920's.

A newer range building from the 1700's sits on the north and east sides of the Tudor ranges containing some fine rooms the building has been altered, extended and repaired many times since then including some alterations by the German air force in the 1940's resulting in the chapel being rebuilt after the war.

A lot of the palace rooms are not open to the public as the space is rented out as offices to a variety of businesses. but the main ones can normally be seen on organized tours.

The grounds have a collection of fine trees including a few which may be 500 years old, so were around when the Palace was relatively new.
On a sunny day like today it is a great space to lounge around in and as a plus point the Cafe in the palace seems reasonably priced by comparison with other tourist spots.

The walled Vegetable garden is being restored and re-planted
The green houses have already been restored, one of their future aims is to be able to sell fruit and veg from the garden to visitors.

Imagine having your little computer repair/etc. shop in a palace. When did they put in electricity?

It would be a nice palace to work from, but since there is no public parking it might be a bit difficult to get customers to bring their desktop PC in.
As for electrikery, it is on the river bank just down from Putney Bridge, Bishops park, which used to be part of the grounds runs right up to the bridge, so I assume the Bishop could probably afford to get connected as soon as it was available (late 19th / early 20th C ?).

But I suppose all the conduits would have to be on the outside of the walls...

Strangely enough, early wiring was rubber insulated with a cotton outer, and they used to hide it in wooden trunking machined to look like it was part of the decoration.

Later on it was the same stuff but made up into a cable with a lead outer sheath, and that was often clipped directly to the wall.

Metal trunking seems to have come in a bit later.

Guess who has had to work with ancient wiring